Getting closer…

First of all, in honor of the holiday season (happy Hanukkah, merry almost Christmas), here’s Santa Pelfrey (who said in an interview with Kevin Burkhardt that he’s so tall he split the santa suit, hee), and his merry elves Frankie Rodriguez and Johnny Maine. As a gift to you, they promise not to give up any Ho-Ho-Home runs next season.

With winter meetings now over, spring training feels just around the corner. And oh, how I enjoyed watching and reading the coverage of this year’s winter meetings. Well done, Omar. Well done. Not only do we now have the best closer on the market (you’re still young, K-Rod! Keep that arm strength up for the rest of your 20s please!), BUT also the best spare. When I watch the game at my folks’ house in Brooklyn, I can tell you they will never tire of making “Putz” jokes–“Is that Putz playing today?”–no matter how strongly he insists it’s pronounced “Puts.”

At this intermediate juncture, the slow, hazy down-time of the holidays, I’d just like to put it out there to the Mets brass to let Oliver Perez go. Do you agree with me? Because here’s the thing. We all know he’s either on, or he isn’t. If he isn’t, he could go through one inning only, throw the ball who knows where, and then leave. And as for our bullpen? We didn’t exactly invest in middle relief. What good’s the closer if you can’t use him? But also, let’s say Ollie’s on. A good day for Ollie can be 5 truly solid innings. I’m not sure I want the team to invest tens of millions into maybe 5 good innings. Does Ollie come through for big games? Yes, often he does, and that’s a valuable contribution. But think of all the lesser games he pitched in 2008 and didn’t win. The B-teams he should have easily beaten. Winning just one of those games might have gotten us to the post-season.

So keep it up, Omar. Get us a brand spanking new starter and give us something else to be excited about.

Meta

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